Optimism at SETICON 2 and Beyond

The SETICON 2 event happened this past weekend in Santa Clara, California. The SETICON is a "unique, entertaining and enlightening public event where science and imagination meet." Speakers such as SETI pioneer Frank Drake, astronauts Mae Jemison and Tom Jones, Star Trek veteran Robert Picardo, SETI director Jill Tarter, exoplanet explorer Geoff Marcy among many other notable people attended and mingled, marinating in the ideas and the presence of influential personalities.

It seems that everyone is excited. There is a palpable post-SETICON 2-buzz filling the internet this week as a result of all that scientific and creative merging. What is the general theme that the rest of us sense? Optimism. 

The reason is this: we can't possibly be living in more interesting times. The entire planet, in one way or another, is connected via planetary, near-instantaneous computer network that is having profound impacts across all aspects of life. The rate at which we solve problems is increasing exponentially, which seems to be leading to the abundant future recently described by Peter Diamandis. And most intriguingly, we've been discovering hundreds of planets outside of our solar system at an intense rate.

Only 20 years ago or so, the only planets we knew about circled our one sun. Now? 777 planets confirmed in 625 star systems. Thousands of planet candidates are currently waiting for verification or confirmation. We are approaching a most radiant future if this pace keeps up. We will be able to see and study potentially millions of worlds. There is no reason the number of known exoplanets will stop at 777. Estimates assume that there are probably planets of one type or another around all the stars in the Milky Way. The chance that life exists somewhere else in that beautiful chaos is getting better with each passing week.

"There are 500 billion planets out there and bear in mind that there are 100 billion other galaxies. To think this is the onlyplace where anything interesting is happening, you have got to be really audacious to take that point of view."(Seth Shostak, senior SETI astronomer, via dailygalaxy.com)

This post is inspired by the dailygalaxy article where the above quote is located. This artcile discusses this palpable optimism and takes it a step further. That optimism is expressed in the belief that some of these SETI-related personalities feel that the discovery of life outside of the Earth is only a few decades away. Maybe not, maybe so...but it sure feels like it could be.

The future is coming people. Brace yourself.